


Love and Lies

by lanalihn



Category: Original Work
Genre: F/M, High School
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-05
Updated: 2019-07-24
Packaged: 2020-06-09 18:11:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 12,980
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19481266
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lanalihn/pseuds/lanalihn
Summary: Nadeene was just another Highschooler thinking she had it all. Great friends, amazing boyfriend, and was a shoe in for Homecoming Queen. But the something happens and everything is turned around. Will she finish her year strong?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys. so this is a story i wrote back in highschool and decided to say why not and post it. this is going to be your typical cringy high school drama so bare with me. and please no hate, i was 15 when I wrote this. Thanks.

Chapter One

“Why. That no good, lousy, lying, son of bitch!” exclaimed Danica.  
“SHHHHH!! He might hear you!” said Nate.  
“I don’t care! That’s Naddie’s boyfriend KISSING Alexandra Wong!!! HER WORSE ENEMY!!!!”  
“God,” sighed Nate, “what is Nadeene going to do when she finds out.”

It was just an ordinary day at John Franklin High School in Peters Town, Virginia for Nadeene Johnson. Nadeene was just your typical high school senior, 3.7 GPA, swimmer, and ASB President. This year, she thought, was to be the best year of her life. She had a wonderful boyfriend, Joseph Summers, amazing best friends and was in the running for Homecoming Queen. The only problem with that was that her worse enemy, Alexandra Wong, was in the running as well. Alexandra, you see, had made it her mission early on in her life to make Nadeenes’ life a living hell the best she could. Anytime Nadeene did something, Alexandra was right behind her trying to do it better, or just trying to get Nadeene to mess up. Anyway, as Nadeene walked up the steps to her high school, she was determined to not let anything, or anyone ruin her last year in Peters Town.

As she was opening her locker, Nadeene was tackled by her best friend Danica Sanders, who she had known since she was 3..  
“Jesus Christ, girl, don’t do that to me” cried Nadeene as she picked up the books she had dropped in the attack.  
“Well sorry” said Danica, dusting herself off. “I’m just so excited for you, I mean there’s only like three weeks until the voting for Homecoming Queen, and I’m pretty sure that Alexandra has nothing on you.”  
“I hope so,” sighed Nadeene as she closed her locker, “Wong is intent on getting that crown and she doesn’t want anything good to happen to me this year.”  
“Well then,” said a voice from behind the two girls, “we just have to make sure that nothing gets you down this year.”

As the girls turned around, they saw Nathan Reeves, their best friend since they were 6 when he moved to town. Both Nate and Danica knew how to make Nadeene feel better when she was down. They also made her feel like she had a real family.  
Naddene’s mother died when she was only a few days old and her dad was always on business trips in foreign countries managing to be a whopping three weeks out of the year. Even though he tried to be there for Nadeene, he just couldn’t give her that family feeling she longed for when she was at home with her Aunt Amy.   
Initially, Amy only agreed to be there because her brother had asked her to, but she never really wanted to be there, so she and her niece never really had a relationship.  
But when it came to Danica and Nate, it felt as if she had always had a family. Danica’s mother and father treated her as if she were their daughter as well, and Nate’s mom always made her feel welcome when she went over to his house to hang out or work on something for school.

“Hey!” Danica poked Nate in the shoulder once he was close enough, he laughed but she was serious. “Where were you Saturday? You missed the CSI: Las Vegas marathon! We’ve been planning this for weeks now and you didn’t show up!”  
“Sorry about that…” Nate ran a hand through his hair and shrugged shyly. “My mom took a last- minute babysitting job, so she needed my help with the Prat triplets. I’ve told you the horror stories about the triplets.”  
“Well, you could’ve called to let us know you were dealing with devil spawn.” Nadeene gave Nate a light punch and he laughed.  
They caught up for a short minute before the school’s first warning bell rang, telling them to head to their homeroom courses. All three of them walked side by side through the hallway, ready to take on anything that their senior year had to throw at them…  
Or, so they thought.

Later on in the day, as Nadeene packed up from Economics to go to lunch, she saw a face she had been dying to see the entire day, and felt a huge smile spread across her face.  
“Jackson!” she shouted running down the hall, with her bag over her shoulder, dropping it as she jumped into her boyfriend’s arms.  
“Hey there, beautiful.” Jackson smiled and set her down carefully, handing her a single red rose as he kissed her cheek.  
Jackson Summers was, in Nadeenes’ mind as well as Danica’s and Nate’s, one of the best things that ever happened to her, in her entire life. They had met in the sixth grade when they were partnered up for a history project on the French Revolution. As they got to know each other more, they started to like each other in the eighth grade. That was the year Jackson asked her out on a date.  
Even though the date was just to their middle school’s school dance, it was the start of a romantic relationship that was just perfect to Nadeene. Just being around him made her feel like she was a princess, because he treated her like one. Anytime she saw him, he always had something special and different to give her, whether it be a rose, a card, or jewelry of some sort, Jackson always put in the extra effort to make her feel special.  
“So,” Jackson began as he took Nadeene’s hand on their way to the cafeteria “how was your weekend?”  
“It was pretty good.” she, squeezing her boyfriend’s hand and smiling brightly. Her day was already that much better. “Danica came over to watch the CSI marathon with me. How about you? Did you have a good weekend?”  
“It was alright, I guess. I was helping my uncle fix up his car the whole time, so I was kept busy.”  
“How sweet. Sounds like you two love birds need a room!” The voice that spoke behind them stopped them as they entered the school cafeteria. The nasty tone easily recognizable to Nadeene.  
“What do you want, Wong?”   
“Oh nothing, of course” Alexandra started, stepping up closer to her target. “I just wanted to let you know that you have no chance of winning that crown as long as I’m in the running. That’s all.”  
“Fat chance. I’ve already talked to practically half the student body and not even one of them said that they were voting for you. They said they’d vote for Nate before the voted for you.”   
“Whatever, Jonhson” Alexandra said, rolling her eyes. “Just watch out. You really don’t want to make me mad, do you?”  
As Alexandra finished her sentence, she flipped her hair over her shoulder, practically skipping by the very annoyed Nadeene and Jackson.  
It didn’t take long for Nadeene and Jackson to get their lunches, and once they did, the headed over to take their usual spots by Danica and Nate. The two of them were currently in the middle of an argument, as the happy couple showed up, about which movie genre was the best of them all.  
“How can you honestly think that science fiction movies are better than horror and thriller movies?” said Nate as he shoveled his salad into his mouth.  
“I just fine science fiction more interesting than horror movies.” stated Danica, whose tone was matter-of-fact as she set down her smoothie and smirked. “Science fiction lets your imagination run free. You can think up a thousand unusual ways for it to keep going. Horror just keeps you in suspense.”  
“But, that’s the entire point of horror!” exclaimed Nate.  
As the two of them kept arguing, Nadeene and Jackson remained completely silent, eating their food and laughing as the argument continued. Once the bell rang signaling the end of lunch, Danica and Nate, still arguing, headed off for the Chemistry class. In the opposite direction, Nadeene and Jackson were going to their Business class.  
Even though the rhymes-with-witch, Alexandra Wong, was also in her Business class, Nadeene was just happy that she had Jackson with her.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

As the business class started off, slowly, Nadeene began to think about the Homecoming dance, which was at this point only a month away. Not only was she going to be running for Homecoming Queen hardcore in the next couple weeks, but she was also in charge of decorating, advertising, and catering. Luckily, since she was in a business class, she found herself learning easier ways to do these things.  
“Now class.” Mrs. Charm, taking her seat at the front of her class behind a podium to begin her lecture. “If you want to find the best deal, you need to find a few companies and compare the prices to find out what will be the cheapest for what you want.”  
As Mrs. Charm continued to talk about the lesson, Naddie made sure that she paid extra close attention, taking very distinguished, multi-colored and organized notes the entire time, making sure she didn’t miss a single thing that could help her make the most amazing Homecoming dance the school had seen in years, while making sure not to bankrupt the sophomore class in the process.  
“Alright, let’s say you’ve found a few companies who have competitive pricing set up, what do you do next?”  
When Mrs. Charm had finished her question, two hands automatically went up to answer. These hands, one of them finely manicured and moisturized, the other with slightly chewed nails and cracked nail polish, belonged to Alexandra and Nadeene.  
“Looks like my two best students want to give this a try, huh?” Amused, Mrs. Charm looked back and forth between them. “Well, to start off, how about we let Alexandra give it a try first?”  
Although Nadeene didn’t want to have to listen to Alexandra try to beat her in yet another thing, she nodded at Mrs. Charm and leaned back in her seat, and started doodling a small flower in the margin of her notebook paper.  
“Oh, thank you, Mrs. Charm.” Alexandra said, stepping up to stand in front of the class, her eyes focused on Nadeene the entire time she spoke. “Once you have picked a small handful of companies you like, the next thing you should do, is try to find out which company will give you more for your money. Or, as I like to say, more bang for your buck.”  
“Well, that is one of the things you could do.” started off Mrs. Charm, waiting for Alexandra to take her seat once more. “Ms. Johnson, why don’t you come up and tell the class another way that you could get, as Ms. Wong put it, more bang for your buck.” Alexandra sneered at Nadeene as she went to the front of the room, mimicking Alexandra’s walk all the way up there.  
“Certainly, Mrs. Charm.” replied Naddie as she got to the front of the room. “You can, as Alexandra pointed out a moment ago, compare the prices and quantity to find out the best deal. However, could also find two companies who have a price-match system, and set these companies up against each other. From there, you could bargain them into a cheaper price for the same product.”  
“Oh, yes, of course.” Mrs. Charm said, nodding, as the last bell of the day began to ring, causing Nadeene to return to her seat to pack up her things and head home. “Remember, class, the homework for tonight is to come up with some sort of advertisement for the Homecoming ticket sales, which start next week. You should all have the pricing information and thing written down already. Thank you, and see you all tomorrow.”  
Once Jackson and Nadeene met up with Danica and Nate again, the four of them started to make their way to their favorite after-school hangout, a smoothie shop known as Zero Degrees. They found this the perfect spot to relax after school, and went there almost every day. After greeting the store manager, Marcy, they took their normal seats at the smoothie “bar” and ordered their drinks.  
“So, did anything interesting happen with Wong today, Naddie?” Nate asked taking a drink from his coconut-banana flavored smoothie.  
“Well, sort of. All she did, as usual, was brag about how she thinks she’s gonna win the Homecoming crown and blah, blah, blah…” Nadeene rolled her eyes and took her berry smoothie with a thank you to Marcy.  
“I doubt that’s going to happen. Not with you being one of, if not THE, most popular girls at school.” Jackson added, mango smoothie in hand.  
“Jackson, can you save your sweetness and crap for when you two are out on a date? ‘Cause, I don’t want to yak up my smoothie on you guys!” replied Danica, giving a playful gag reaction.  
After a moment of semi-awkward silence, looking among themselves, the teens all broke out into laughter and almost started to cry from laughing so hard over such a stupid comment.  
After finishing their smoothies and paying the bill, Jackson started to head over to the gas station where he worked, Nate headed for the library down the street to get book for his English report, and the girls started the half-mile walk to Danica’s house to get working on the Homecoming planning. After being tackled by Danica’s two Great-Danes, Pogo and Henry, they headed to sit down at the dining table. Now, with the dogs being slightly calmer then when they had entered, Danica told the dogs to go to the living room, so the two girls could work in a bit of peace and quiet.  
“Okay, so…” Danica started to mumble, standing up and heading over to the fridge to grab some snacks for the two girls. “What do you think we should get to work on first? What is at the top of the “Need to get done” list?”  
Nadeene stopped for a second to think, popping a grape into her mouth from the bowl that Danica had just put down on the table. “Well, we need to figure out what food we are going to sell so that once we have to numbers from ticket sales, we can make sure we will have enough food for the dance and it will be there on time, still hot. So, let’s start with finding a place that will give us really good deal.”  
“Sounds good to me. Let’s get started.”  
As they two girls worked on finding some food bargains for Homecoming, they started talking about what they were going to wear at the dance. Danica, who liked a very extravagant style, said she was going to wear a red, one shoulder dress with a beading design going all over. As for Naddie, who liked more simple styles, said that she hadn’t quite found a dress that “spoke” to her.  
“Well, you’ll want to hurry and get a dress talking.” replied Danica. “I mean, only have a few weeks, and you want to look hot-like-fire when you get the crown.”  
“I know, I know.” Naddie began, eating another grape as she shuffled through same more paperwork for the project she was working on. “But I want to wear the necklace my mom left me. The dress must be perfect. It has to represent my mom.”  
“I’m sure she would be honored that you’re doing that for her, Naddie.” As Danica said this, she put her arms around her best friend, knowing what was about to happen. Within seconds, both the girls had tears running down their faces.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

It was hard for Nadeene to open-up to anyone and talk to them about her mother. Mostly because she had never known who her mother was. When Nadeene was born, her grandmother had figured out how to use a camcorder, just so she could video-tape every second of Nadeenes’ life… that is, until her mother died of heart complications, which is when the tapes suddenly stopped. Everyone was heartbroken. Her grandmother took care of her for about a year, until she passed away as well, which is where her aunt came into the picture.  
When she first found and watched these videos, she had been about fourteen. As she watched these videos, she noticed one important thing. Her mother never once let go of her when she was a baby. Even when she was sleeping, her mother would place her just so that the newborn wouldn’t roll or fall, and so that she was always close to her mother’s heart. One day, when she was re-watching the videos for probably the fifth or sixth time, she noticed something new. If it wasn’t for her having her father’s black hair. She was almost an exact replica of her mother. Blue-green eyes, slim lips, rosy cheeks, and even the light laugh and smile that Nadeene had, she shared with her mother.  
The similarities made it that much harder for the teen, because she knew that her mother would have understood everything she was going through. Now, when she looked in the mirror, she saw her mom with black hair, but she would never get to talk to her. Hug her, or even just be around her.  
Once Nadeene had relaxed a bit, and after a short conversation about the necklace, Danica suggested they take a break for a bit, and go watch some TV. Nadeene agreed easily, and the two girls headed out into the living room to snuggle on the couch with Pogo and Henry, and put on a movie. “I just need to calm down a little bit,” she thought with an inner shake. “Then, everything will be fine.”  
After a three hour- long movie break for a Disney film, the two girls went back into the kitchen area to finish working on the Homecoming menu. Half-an-hour into this, Danica’s mother, Jennifer Sanders - who Nadeene called Auntie Jen or just Jen- walked into the house through the back door.  
“Well, hello Nadeene. Didn’t know you would be here.” Regardless of this fact, Jen maintained her smile and gave both the girls their own welcoming hug. “If you don’t mind my asking, what are you two busybodies up to?”  
“We were just trying to figure out what we’re going to be ordering for the Homecoming dance. We’ve been trying to figure it out for about two and a half hours now, not including the movie break we took.”  
“Well, that’s awesome, but as much as I’d like to stay and help you two, I’ve got to head back out. Just came by to pick up some paperwork. My boss just tricked me into going to a dinner meeting with some new clients of ours.”  
Since Jen was a lawyer, she was often having meetings in various places with various people, which caused her to either work late at the office, or have to meet the clients elsewhere, most nights out of the week.  
“That’s alright, Auntie Jen. It was nice to see you again. It’s been a while.” The teen smiled, and Jen laughed a bit, walking out of her office with a bunch of papers.  
“It was nice to see you, too.” Jen said as she shuffled the papers around in her arms as she walked through the house, grabbing her car keys once again. “Have fun, girls. Don’t get in too much trouble!”  
As Jen walked back to her car, the girls sat back down and went to work on the menu once again after what had already been a long day. Nadeene couldn’t help but think to herself that this was going to be an amazing year.

“Man,” Nate said, shaking his head a few days later as he and Danica walked down the hall of their school, “she got that sick. Seriously?”  
“I guess she did.” Danica responded, tucking her phone away and continuing down the hall, “But, hey, we both know how Naddie is with seafood. It’s a hit-or-miss, and when it’s a miss, it’s a BIG one.”  
“No kidding.”  
The two teens turned the corner of their school to head over to their lockers, and the thought this year couldn’t get any worse so far for their friend. Unfortunately, they were way off target.  
“What the f--”  
“Freak!” Nate finished for Danica, grabbing her by the shoulders and pulling her back around the corner.  
What the two of them had just seen, and what they were referring to, was something they thought they would never see. Jackson Summer and Alexandra Wong, the two most varied ends of the spectrum of Nadeene’s relationship-- not to mention that if Nadeene could rid the world of one person, it would be Alexandra-- were standing in the hallway, kissing. The only other people who were at the school during this time were a few teachers grading paper and preparing for the day’s lesson and the few students who were at school an hour early, studying in the library.  
Just as Danica was about to go back around the corner and say something, Nate grabbed her by her backpack, pinned her to the lockers as quietly, but forcefully, as her could and put his hand over her mouth before she could say anything. Once he made sure that she wasn’t going to start screaming obscenities, he removed his hand from her mouth and loosened his grip on her, but still firm enough to keep her pressed against the lockers.  
“What the hell was that?!” Danica whispered to Nate-- but it wasn’t really a question. More of a demand for an answer, and quick.  
“Will you hush up?! If you get any louder, they’ll hear you.” Nate whispered as he looked around to make sure no one heard.  
Danica’s tone got quieter, but far harsher, which made it that much scarier, when she said, “Does it really look like I care at the moment?!”  
Just then, a cell-phone rang near-by. Both, afraid it was one of their own, began to search for their phone. But, a moment later, they found out it was Jackson, getting a call from someone.  
“Hey, babe…. No, no. I’m still at my house, getting ready for school…. Okay, love you too… Bye, dear. Feel better.” CLICK. After he had hung up, they heard it fall back into his bag with a thud as Jackson gave a chuckle. “She’s so easy to fool.”  
“Oh, yes,” Alexandra said, in a rather maniacal way, “yes she is.”  
Once Jackson and Alexandra had walked down the hallway, together, just as he had been with Nadeene not 24 hours earlier, Danica started to speak.  
“Why, that no good, lousy, lying son of a bitch!” Danica nearly shouted, but managed to keep her voice down to avoid being heard by the teacher passing by.  
“Danica, shush! He might hear you!” Nate said, pulling Danica back, once more, by the shoulder.  
“I don’t care! That was Nadeene’s boyfriend kissing Alexandra Wong! Her worst enemy!”  
“God…” Nate said, shaking his head and sighing. “What is Nadeene going to do when she finds out?”  
“I don’t know, Nate. I just don’t know what she’s going to do. But I do know one thing and that’s that Jackson and Alexandra had better watch their backs because the Archery Team is having practice today, and I just got a new bow.”


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

By the time lunch had rolled around at school, Danica was about ready to grab Jackson and beat the crap out of him right there in the cafeteria. The only things that were stopping her now were, for one, Nate, who was trying his best to keep not only her calm but himself as well, and, two, the fact that they were in school.  
“That little bastard is so damn lucky you’re here, Nate… ‘cause if you weren’t, he’d be dead now, and so would Alexandra, seriously.” Danica said through her teeth, unconsciously smashing her, what was a, half carton of chocolate milk in the process.  
“I know… but you don’t need to murder the milk carton.” Nate said, carefully prying the carton from Danica’s hands and giving her a napkin. “Besides, I’m not worried about that right now. What I am worried about is, how are we going to tell Naddie. I mean, we can’t just not tell her. She’s our best friend.”  
“Trust me, I hear you.” Danica said, wiping the last of the chocolate milk from her now covered hands. “I guess we’ll just have to be straightforward with her and tell her. We can’t beat around the bush.”  
They realized that there was no other way to possibly tell her, so after school had gotten out, they planned to tell Nadeene the truth. The whole truth. Everything they saw, heard, even what they had said. Hopefully, they both thought as they walked to their’s house, she won’t completely break down when we tell her. But, both Danica and Nate knew, that that wish, would be just that, a hope filled wish. A wish that couldn’t possibly be filled.

Halfway to Nadeene’s house, Danica had gotten tired of carrying her bag and asked Nate to carry it for a bit. That didn’t work out too well. But after a while, Nate gave in and took it. Once he did, it was silence the rest of the way, until they ended up at Nadeene’s front porch. As both the teens looked at each other, they let out a sigh in unison and sat on the front porch. Not knowing what they were going to do.  
“Well, I guess we’re just going to have to tell her.” Danica said, giving Nate a worried look.  
“I guess you’re right…” Nate agreed, with a slight nod. “but how is she going to take it?”  
“How am I going to take what?”  
Danica and Nate both jumped up when they heard the voice. They turned to the direction of the garage, where they found Nadeene with a bag of garbage in her hand. As they all looked at each other, Nadeene knew something major was going on, and immediately headed back inside the house, her best friends close behind her.  
“So….” Nadeene started, as she closed the door behind Nate as he entered the living room, “what were you guys talking about just a second ago?”  
Nate decided that he would start. “Well…. we were at school this morning… we got there early, before anyone was really there, and…”  
Danica then continued, “And I was explaining to Nate about you being sick today, and just as we were heading to our locker row…”  
“… we turned the corner to get there, and we saw Jackson and Alexandra…”  
“… they were…. Kissing.”  
Nadeene just sat there, more than a little bit stunned.  
“That isn’t possible guys,” she replied, trying to laugh it off. “I called him this morning like a hour before school even started and he told me that he--”  
“Was at home?” Danica started.  
“Getting ready?” Nate said as if he knew, which he did.  
“Well, yes.” Nadeene said being confused. “But how d… oh my God.”  
As she finished her statement, the only thing she could do was to look down at the ground and pray she wasn’t going to cry. Unfortunately, she started to cry almost immediately, tears falling down her cheeks quickly.  
As the tears started to streak her face, and sniffles started to make noise in the room, Nadeene could feel both Danica and Nate wrap their arms around from opposite sides, trying to comfort her. Hearing all the noise, Nadeene’s aunt, Amy, came out to see what was going on.  
“Kids, what the hell is going on?” she asked concerned but somewhat annoyed by the noise.  
Danica let go of her best friend long enough to go over to her aunt and explain what had just happened, in a whisper so the teen wouldn’t get even more upset. After a moment, her aunt got the picture. She went over to her niece and gave her a quick hug, saying that she would give them some time alone. After that she left the room, leaving the teens in the living-room alone once more.  
After about ten minutes of consoling and crying, Danica decided it would be best if they got something to eat, and moved their living-room tear session over to the dining-room. When they got there, Amy had taken out some tamales from the other night and had heated them up for the teens. She also left a Post-it on the tinfoil covered plate saying that she had to go to the church and help with the upcoming fundraiser and that she had already called Danica and Nate’s families to ask if they could stay over for the night. They both could. All three of them were happy to hear about that, because they knew that it was going to be a long, rough night for all of them.  
The night before, after they had finished eating, the three teens just sat down in the den and watched a lot of TV to make sure that Nadeene was calming down and was going to be alright.   
When Nadeene opened her eyes, they were red and puffy from all the crying she had done. As she looked around the den, she couldn’t help but recall what had happened the day before and started to cry again. Had her boyfriend of nearly four years really cheated on her, with the girl who she hated most? While she was asking herself this, her tears woke up Nate and Danica.  
“Hey,” Danica said, slowly pushing the conversation forward in no direction at all. She yawned before she could say anything else.  
“Are you doing alright?” Nate asked, putting his hand on Nadeene’s shoulder to comfort her.  
Nadeene shrugged, and spoke softly. “If I knew what being alright was, I guess I could say that I might be there.” She then let out a small sigh. “I guess I should just be glad that I found this our now instead of later, right? Like at the dance.”  
Nodding in unison, Danica and Nate started to feel a little guiltier now. They had wanted to make this year the best year yet for their best friend. Now, they felt as though the town of them had worked together to ruin the entire thing for her. That was exactly the opposite of what they had wanted.  
“Nadeene...”  
“Nate and I are really sorry we had to give you the news.”  
“We didn’t want to ruin you senior-year, but I guess that sort of back-fired on us.”  
With a small smile, Nadeene looked at her friends and said,  
“It’s alright, guys. It wasn’t your fault. You two were just trying to protect me from getting hurt even more than I would have if I’d found out by seeing it myself, or hearing about it from someone else. I’m just glad you two waited to come and tell me in person than over a text or phone-call. You guys are the best friends anyone could have asked for.”  
Luckily for them, a horrible lighting and thunder storm had come in overnight and was bad enough that many of the schools in town had been closed. Watching TV, they saw that their school had been one of the one effected by the storm. This made them smile a bit. This just gave Danica and Nate a reason to stay over even longer at Nadeene’s. Though, they really didn’t need a reason-- it wouldn’t have been a problem if their parents knew what was going on, which they assumed that Amy had told them when she called to ask if they could stay.  
By the time they had all changed into some more comfortable clothes, Danica dipping into Nadeene’s closet and Nate just putting on his gym shorts, Amy was in the kitchen making waffles for breakfast before she was off to work.  
“Morning, young adult people.” Amy called over the sounds of sizzling bacon in the kitchen. “You feeling alright, hun?” she asked as she walked into the living room, where they had all gathered, concern in her voice,  
“Yeah… everything’s alright, Amy. Thanks for asking.”  
“Alright, well… if you insist.” Amy moved back into the kitchen and grabbed the plate of waffles that she’d just made, grabbing the bacon with a set of pincers and putting them on a second plate, also very large, and went to put them on the table. From there she grabbed the syrup and three plates, as well as three forks and knives. “I have to go to the office early today, so if you need anything, my number is on the fridge. You sure you three will be alright here by yourselves? Totally sure?”  
“We should be fine.” Nate answered as he and the girls sat down, making their plates.  
“Well…” Amy was a bit cautious as she looked at the three of them, Nadeene smiling. “Alright… if you think you’ll be fine. You three stay out of trouble. No burning down the house or getting in trouble with the cops. I’ll be back later.”  
As Amy headed toward the garage door, she stopped herself by Nadeene, giving her niece a rather large hug and whispering in her ear the assurance that everything would be alright. Once her aunt was gone, Nadeene finally seemed to realize that this wasn’t all just some crazy dream, and that she wasn’t going to wake up and find that it was all a horrible nightmare after all.  
Jackson had been cheating on her for a long time, more than likely, and she never even realized it. Just sitting at the table eating her breakfast with her best friends, she wondered how she could have gone without figuring out that she was being cheated on.  
While Nadeene’s mind was wandering, Danica and Nate were trying to figure out how she was coming out of the shocked phase of this so early. They looked at each other, both hoping that the other would have an idea to get her mind off of the subject, though neither of them could think of anything. Finally, against better judgment, Nate decided to speak and change the mood of the morning.  
“Your aunt is a really good cook, Nat.”  
“Thank you, I think…” Nadeene laughed, and it was genuine as she picked at her own breakfast. “I’ll let her know that you said that when she gets home… or, if you’re still here, you can tell her.”  
Seeing that the mood was still quite a bit off from being happy, Nate decided to give up his attempt to cheer Nadeene up and went on eating, quietly. While this was happening, Danica spent her breakfast-eating time trying to think of a way to get their minds off the subject. She, too, failed.  
Just as the three of them were about to clean up from breakfast, there was a knock on the door. All three of them looked at each other in confusion, but they moved to the front door together. Why would there be a visitor during a thunderstorm? Who would even be out at a time like this? Although these questions were running through Nadeene’s mind, she figured that she had better answer the door.  
As she opened the door, all the three of them could do was stare at the person on the other side.  
“Oh…”  
“My…”  
“God!” Nadeene finished Danica and Nate’s statement.  
The girl who they least wanted to see was standing in Nadeene’s doorway. Alexandra was there.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So this is a little switch up here. Not sure why I decided to make a Chapter from Alexandra's POV but hey not gonna argue with highschool me sooo, yeah.

Chapter Five

“And, in other news, due to massive flooding from this surprise storm, the following schools have been closed…”  
As Alexandra sat in her car, listening to the morning weather report on her way to school, she just couldn’t help but hope that school wasn’t cancelled today. If it was, she had gotten up way too early for nothing.  
Just as she turned the corner in the “new” car that her parents had given her on her birthday only a month before--which was really an awful piece of crap--she heard the one thing she didn’t want to hear.  
“…and the last school to be closed due to the thunderstorm is John Franklin High School. That’s all for the weather report, and now back to your Top 30 Songs of the week. This is Joshua Mick saying, stay cool and keep dry.”  
“Great!” Alexandra shouted, slamming her hands onto the wheel and sighing. “Now what am I supposed to do? In this rust bucket, I’ll be lucky if I can get to a gas station.” She turned on her blinker and pulled into the turn lane, so that she could turn around.  
As she turned around to head back to her grandmother’s house--seeing as her parents were on a business trip out of state-- she thought about calling up Jackson to ask if he wanted to come over. Just the thought of the fact that she had stolen Nadeene’s boyfriend right out from under her nose brightened her day.  
As she was about to laugh to herself, she heard the phone ring. From the ringbone, though the number was hidden, as it always was when he called from his home phone, she knew it was Jackson and she answered right away,  
“Morning, babe. What’s going on?”  
“Nothing, dear. I just wanted to call and make sure you weren’t headed to school in this storm.” Jackson’s voice on the other end of the line make her smile as she put her phone into her lap on speakerphone and continued to drive. “I just heard it on the TV that all the schools are closed because of the storm.”  
“Yeah, well, unfortunately I didn’t get that memo from the weather people until I was right around the corner from school.”  
“That sucks.”  
Alexandra rolled her eyes at Jackson’s apparent lack of giving a damn. “It sure does. I’m still driving, and in this storm, I need to focus on it, I’ll call you later. Bye.”  
Without his goodbye in her ear, she hung up the phone and tossed it into the passenger seat. The second her phone had hung up, Alexandra heard her car make a strange noise… and, unfortunately enough, Alexandra knew that noise all too well coming from her car.  
“No, no, please no! Oh, God, please don’t do this right now!” Alexandra shouted as her car started to break down. Finally, as it slowed and stopped moving, she had pulled to the curb.  
She was still a few blocks away from her grandma’s, but she was in a residential area. She had at least stopped in front of a house. “I guess I don’t have all bad luck…”  
As Alexandra got out of her car, she pulled her jacket’s hood over her head, but it didn’t matter. Regardless, almost the second she stepped out she was soaked. She slammed her car door and went around to grab her cell-phone, which was now dead, from the passenger seat and tucked it inside her shirt before it got soaking wet.  
She could only hope that someone would be home at this house, so that she could at least call up her grandma or a tow truck, whichever would work, as she knocked on the door. She was now wishing she had charged her phone the night before, she completely forgot.  
“Oh, thank the Lord…” Alexandra muttered as she heard the lock being turned and the door starting to open.  
All Alexandra could think about was that she was lucky her car happened to stop in front of this house. She would just go inside, really quickly, use the phone, and wait for a tow truck to come get her car. Then, she could be out of the homeowner’s hair. Hopefully, anyway. What came next was something she never could have expected though.  
She let out a sigh of relief, and she was about to dig deep into a fake apology for being here, but the she would ask to use the phone.  
The thing she heard which matched her own thoughts made her really regret stopping in front of this house.  
“Oh…”  
“My…”  
“God!”  
“Of all people, why does it have to be her!” Danica said, shaking her head and going into what Alexandra assumed was a kitchen.  
In front of Alexandra stood none other than Nadeene.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six

Nadeene stood in the doorway, gawking in silence at the girl who stood in front of her. She couldn’t help but get the feeling of wanting to grab Alexandra by her hair and punch her so hard that her teeth would be stuck in the back of her throat.  
Fortunately, after Danica had gone into the kitchen, after saying “Of all people, why does it have to be her!”, Nate had taken her by the arm that was behind the door and given it a light squeeze at the elbow. This had always been his silent way of telling her not to lose her cool.  
After a moment of awkward silence, Alexandra spoke.  
“Hey, uh. Would it be possible for me to ask to use your phone? My car broke down on the way back to my grandma’s and my cell died after a call with… someone.”  
“Let you use the phone!” Danica muttered in the kitchen, just loud enough that Alexandra couldn’t hear her over the rain, but Nate and Nadeene could. “Not on your life.”  
Before Danica could continue, Nadeene stepped out of the way to let Alexandra inside. “Sure. Come on in.”  
Nate helped Alexandra peel off her light cloth jacket and tossed it into the dryer in the laundry room as Nadeene led Alexandra to the phone.  
“You may have to give it a minute to start ringing after you dial the number. The phone books on the bookshelf right there, if you can’t get an answer.” Nadeene handed Alexandra the home phone and turned around to walk into the living room, then got pulled into the den.  
“Thanks!” Alexandra shouted, starting to dial for a tow truck.  
“What is she doing here?!” exclaimed Danica.  
“I don’t know about that. But I do know one thing. If that tow truck doesn’t get here soon, it’s gonna be World War III in here.” Nate said, glancing over at Danica who, at this point, wanted to kill Alexandra, judging by her clenched fist.  
“Look guys…” Nadeene said, as she got Danica to let go of her arm, “if anyone has a reason to be upset right now, it’s me…” She continued to try to calm the situation down. “She just needs to use the phone, because her car broke down outside. The tow truck will only take, like… ten, fifteen minutes tops to get here. Until them let’s try to be… semi-hospitable to her. Okay?”

With a sigh, both Danica and Nate nodded in defeat, Nate giving Danica the elbow squeeze as the all moved back into the living room, where Alexandra was now standing in front of the small heater, trying to dry herself off.  
“The garage said it would be about twenty to thirty minutes before they could get here though the storm” Alexandra said, pulling off the thin shirt she was wearing over a camisole, and waving it through the air to dry it off.  
“That’s fine,” Nadeene said, though Danica and Nate groaned in dismay. Nadeene cleared her throat an obvious threat as she walked over to Alexandra to turn up the heater, which helped to stop the other girl from shivering.  
Alexandra seemed shocked at the civility and hospitality that Nadeene was showing, and kept herself a few steps back.  
“Can I get you something to drink?” Nadeene asked. Oh, my… did I just ask her that? Nadeene thought, rolling her eyes at herself on the inside.  
“Uh, sure. Water. I guess. Thanks…?” Alexandra was a bit taken back. Is she actually being nice to me? Alexandra thought as Nadeene heading to a cupboard to find a cup.  
When Nadeene came back into the living room with a cup of water for Alexandra, Nate and Danica had taken a seat at the couch, Nate holding Danica’s hand in his, trying to keep her calm. As she handed Alexandra the cup, Nadeene really didn’t know what do to at the moment.  
“Uh, would you like to have a seat, so you don’t need to stand?” Nadeene finally said, trying to break the awkward silence. Really, she thought to herself, that’s all I could think of?  
“Sure,” Alexandra said, hesitantly, “thank you.” As she finished her sentence, she walked over to the couch on the other side of the room, so she didn’t have to sit next to Nate and Danica, who had a look of shock on their faces from what Nadeene had just done.   
Once Nadeene had taken a seat on the other side of Nate, the four teens sad there for a moment in awkward silence, with no sound except for the occasional bang of thunder outside. After a moment, Danica decided to turn the TV on to try to distract everyone. About ten minutes passed before Nate decided to speak to, hopefully ease the tension in the room.  
“So, uh, Alexandra. How did you end up here during this storm?”  
“What? Oh…” Alexandra just noticed that Nate was talking to her. “Well, I left for school early, and didn’t hear that school had been closed because of the storm…” At this Danica gave a little sucks to be you chuckle, Alexandra ignoring this, “until I was around the corner from school.”  
“Oh.” Nate said, feeling as though he just made things more awkward as he saw Nadeene trying not to make eye contact with Alexandra.  
“So, when I turned around to head home, my car broke down and stopped in front of this house, and well, here we are.”  
“Well,” started Nadeene, “hopefully the tow truck will get here soon… so you can get back home, anyway. I’m sure your family is worried.” Nadeene was showing a bit of actual concern as she said this. It surprised everyone in the room. Including herself.   
“Well, I gave my grandma a call after I called the tow truck, so she shouldn’t be too worried.”  
When Alexandra finished her sentence, the room returned to silence, minus the sound of the TV, which was currently on a re-run of I Love Lucy.  
After about another fifteen minutes of silence, there was a knock at the door. As Danica got up to answer it, everyone in the room had the same thought. Thank the Lord, they’re here, finally. As Alexandra began to put her coat, which Nate had gotten out of the dryer for her, on, she gave Nadeene a thank you and left heading into the tow truck to take her to the garage.  
As Nadeene closed the door, Nate and Danica let out a sigh of relief. Once she had locked the door once again, she walked over to the couch and flopped down, also letting out a sigh.  
“God, that was just awkward.” Nadeene said, she closed her eyes for a minute.  
“No kidding.” Nate agreed. “If she had stayed any longer I’m not sure my hand would have survived.” Nate was now rubbing the hand that Danica was holding onto, evidently, extremely hard while Alexandra had been there.  
“Sorry about that.” Danica apologized, giving a little shrug. “But it was either that, or something bad would have happened.”  
“Well, now that all that is over, how about we watch some CSI: Las Vegas to get our minds off this.” Nadeene suggested.  
Both Nate and Danica nodded in agreement. As she put a disk into the DVD player, Nadeene was just happy that all of that was over. Nothing could have been more awkward than the past twenty-five minutes in her opinion. Hopefully things wouldn’t get any worse.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven

The following Monday, after the thunderstorm, Nadeene just sitting at lunch waiting for Nate and Danica to get their food, Nadeene was debating on whether she should confront Jackson about his affair with Alexandra. When she talked to him earlier in the day, he acted as if everything was still the same. When she asked if he was gonna sit with her at lunch, he had told her that he had a Soccer meeting at lunch and couldn’t. Nadeene figured that was a lie because the soccer coach, who was also her English teacher, wasn’t even there that day. Then at lunch, didn’t see Alexandra anywhere near the cafeteria, she knew what they were up to.  
When Danica and Nate finally sat down with Nadeene, she decided that she had to do something. She couldn’t sit there any longer like nothing was going on. Next period, after Business class, I’ll confront him, she thought.  
“Nadeene, you okay?” Danica asked as she set her tray down.  
“What?” Nadeene said, as she was snapped out of thought. “Oh yeah, I’m fine. I decided that I’m going to confront Jackson next period.”  
Both Nate and Danica looked at each other, both a bit concerned. Shrugging, Nate decided to say something.  
“You sure you’re going to be able to handle that? I mean that’s a major move you’re about to make. You think you can handle it?”  
“If I don’t do this now, I may never be able to.” Nadeene said, pushing her salad around on her tray. “No matter if I’m ready or not, I have to do this.”  
“Well, I’m happy you’re finally confronting him.” Danica said, taking a bite from her sandwich. After she swallowed her food, she continued her statement. “’Cause, any longer, and I was going to say or do something… more than likely do something.” After a moment, the three of them started to laugh. They felt as though everything seemed to be getting better now. Nadeene could only hope that things were getting better. If not, she wasn’t sure what she was going to do.  
Before lunch was over, the three of them just ate in silence until Nate spoke up.  
“Uh, Danica?” Nate started off rather nervously, leading Nadeene and Danica to wonder what he was doing. “I know this may be a weird time to ask, considering everything that’s going on, but…uh.”  
“Yes, Nate? What is it?” Danica asked, with a curious look.   
“Would you, uh, since we are all going to the dance anyway, I was thinking, maybe, you and I could, uh…” Nate continued to stutter. Not being able to take it for one more second, Nadeene stepped in and finished Nate’s question.  
“Will you go to the Homecoming dance with him? That’s what he’s trying to ask.”  
“Nadeene!!!” Nate yelled.  
“Nate,” Danica cut in, “was that what you were trying to ask me?” She slowly began to blush.  
“Well, yes. It was. So, what do you say, Danica? Will you?” Nate finally asked, he, too, was blushing.  
“Yes, Nate. I would love to go with you.” Danica said, her face now completely red, as was Nate’s.  
“About time you asked her, Nate.” Nadeene said.  
After a moment of laughing, the bell rang to head to class. It was now time for Nadeene to do something she wished she never had to do. Okay Nadeene, she thought to herself, let’s do it.

When she walked into her last class of the day, she prepared herself for a conversation that was going to change everything she knew. However, when class started, Mrs. Charm sprung a surprise quiz on them. Jackson had gotten done early, so he could leave class. Nadeene, on the other hand didn’t finish until, about, five minutes before the bell was supposed to ring. The entire time while she was taking the quiz, she couldn’t help but think about what she was going to say to Jackson when she saw him. Once she was finished, she turned her paper in and went into the hallway to find Jackson. When she turned the corner to go to where his locker was, she found him putting his textbooks in his bag. Okay Nadeene, she thought to herself as she walked to him, time to hike up your skirt and do this. It’s now or never.  
“Jackson,” she said when she reached him, “we need to talk.”  
“Okay, sweetness. What about?” Jackson replied, still putting his books in his bag.  
“Remember last week, when I had gotten sick?” Nadeene started off.  
“Yes.”  
“And remember how I called you and you told me you were still at your house getting ready?”  
“Yes. Nadeene, what is this about?” Jackson said, sounding very annoyed.  
“Well,” Nadeene said, a bit nervous, “Nate and Danica came to school very early that day, and they told me that they saw you and Alexandra.”  
“Uh-huh.”  
“Together… kissing… when I called you.”  
“Really, did they now?” Jackson said, with a small grin on his face.  
This scared Nadeene quite a bit. Why wasn’t he even trying to deny any of it? Did he not feel sorry about it, at all? “Jackson, I need the truth. Are you cheating on me with Alexandra?”  
“To be honest, Nadeene, yes. Yes, I have.”  
Nadeene’s mouth must have dropped to the floor at this time. She was so shocked. He hadn’t even tried to come up with an excuse he just flat out told her that he had been cheating on her. He even had a grin on his face like he was proud of the fact that he had. She was now extremely pissed off.  
“How long has this been going on?!” she said through her teeth, trying to make sure that a passing teacher wouldn’t hear her.  
With an assumed smile on his face, Jackson sarcastically asked “How long have we been going out?” This made Nadeene just flat out furious.  
“The whole time!! You were cheating on me the whole god-damn, fucking time?!”  
“Pretty much, sweet cheeks.” Jackson replied, as he playfully tapped Nadeene’s nose, causing her to take a step back. “It was so much fun, too. You are easy to fool. Getting you, all those presents didn’t hurt, either.”  
“Why? Why did you do this to me?” Nadeene asked, her eyes becoming watery. “Four years, four years, and it means nothing to you?! Why? What was the purpose of it?”  
“Well, it’s actually a bit complicated.” Jackson said, as he leaned against the row of lockers behind him. “You see, I wanted to be more popular, and with you being the most popular girl in school, it was an obvious choice. I was also helping my REAL girlfriend because as soon as you fell for me, she came up with a plan. I would make you the happiest girl on earth, have you fall desperately in love with me, and then when the time was right, break your heart and you.” He gave a little chuckle. “It was actually quite brilliant. But I guess since you found out already, I don’t really have to break up with you to break your heart now, do I?” He said this to her as if she were a baby. Now, Nadeene was officially pissed off beyond all belief.  
As the last bell of the day rang and kids filed out of their classes to their lockers, Nadeene couldn’t take it any longer. What she said next, was so shocking and so surprising that basically the entire hallway froze and became silent, as all the students listened. It was a good thing there were no teachers in the hall because what she said next would have gotten her suspended for the rest of the semester.  
“Why you lousy, no good, lying son of a fucking bitch!! I gave you my heart, my soul! I gave four years of my fucking life to you! Four god-damn years! And this is what I get! A boyfriend that, not only lied to me, but cheated on me with the one person who wishes I was dead! Not just for a week or a month, but our entire fucking relationship!” At this point she was screaming at the top of her lungs, fists clenched, tears rolling down her face and an entire hallway full of students watching her, her best friends included, who were stunned at everything she was saying. “Well, you know what? It’s over! Don’t call me, don’t text me, don’t even wave at me if you see me because it’s over. That stupid bitch can have you! You definitely deserve each other, you fucking bastard!”   
Once she had finished, she turned around and quickly walked out the door of the school. After she got outside, she made a full-on sprint for Danica’s house. The entire time she was running, she was crying like there was no tomorrow. There were so many thoughts racing through her head. He didn’t even act like he was guilty. He just admitted it like there was absolutely nothing wrong. How could he have done this to me? How could I not have known?  
By the time she got to Danica’s house, Nadeene was out of breath but she couldn’t care less. It wasn’t until she sat down on the porch when she realized that Danica was not yet there. In the heat of the moment, she had run out of the school leaving her shocked friends behind. So, she just sat there for ten minutes, trying not to cry, waiting for her best friend to get there.   
When Danica and Nate finally got there, they too were out of breath, Nate more than Danica. When Nadeene ran out of the school, she had dropped her backpack at the front doors without realizing it. Nate had picked it up and ran with not only his bag full of book, but hers as well. Although she felt guilty, there was too much on her mind to apologize. The only thing she could do was grab both and cry. Both Danica and Nate, dropped what they were holding, wrapped their arms around her and just comfort her the best they could. The only sound on Danica’s street that afternoon, were the sounds of the two girls crying and Nate telling them everything would be ok.   
After about ten minutes of this, Nate slowly nudged the two girls towards the door. Once Danica opened the door, all three of them went inside, where Nadeene sat on the couch, knees to her chest, with Nate and Danica on either side of her, arms wrapped around and head on shoulder. They stayed like this all the way until Nate left of at five o’clock. Nadeene had called Amy to let her know what was happening and asked if she could stay the night. There was no objection. When Jen got home, Danica told her the condensed version of what had happened. So, in efforts to get their spirits up a bit, she ordered pizza and told them that they could rent a movie. Good thing too, because it was going to be a very long night for the girls.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight

About a week after Nadeene had broken it off with Jackson, the three teens were sitting in the library during their second period study hall. Nate was working on some homework he had forgotten for his Italian class, Danica was flipping through a magazine, trying to find a dress for Nadeene, and Nadeene was looking at something on her phone.  
“Okay, so…” Danica started as she looked up from the magazine she was reading, trying to help Nadeene find a dress. “I think we should probably hit Windsor first to see their last-minute sales, then head over to the dress store across the way, the one that sells wedding dresses as well… Naddie?” When Danica said this, she finally realized that her friend wasn’t paying attention to anything she was saying.  
What Nadeene had been looking at on her phone, the entire time while Danica was talking, was a picture of her and Jackson. The picture showed them both, standing in front of a ride at a carnival. It had been their one-year anniversary. Nadeene remembered it all too well.   
Jackson met her outside the fairgrounds that night. Once they had bought their tickets, they headed in to just goof around and hang out. Jackson had won Nadeene a stuffed cat, which she was holding in the picture. When the picture was taken, the two had just gotten in line for the Ferris Wheel. It had been the happiest night of her life, but now that she knew it was all a lie, she just wanted to delete that picture and never look at it again. But, somehow, she just couldn’t hit delete on her phone, so instead, she just closed her phone and put it back in her bag. It was at this time that she realized that Danica had been talking to her.  
“Oh sorry, Danica. Were you saying something?”  
“Did you hear a single word I said?” Danica said, a bit annoyed as she closed her magazine.  
“Not really. What did you say?” Nadeene said, apologetically.  
“She was saying,” Nate started, as he turned a page in his textbook, “that this Saturday, when you two are at the mall, she wants to go to Windsor to look for your dress first. Then, if you can’t find anything there, go to the dress store across the way and look there.” Both the girls looked at Nate, slightly stunned that he had repeated all of that. When he looked up, he gave them a questioning look. “What? When Danica talk, she tends to talk a bit loudly and makes it hard not to hear her… well for me, at least.”  
As Danica reached over to punch his arm, Nadeene gave a small laugh. She was happy her friends were there to make her day a little better. Before Danica could do any more damage to Nate’s arm, Nadeene figured that she had better say something to distract her.  
“Nate, why don’t you come with us to the mall? We can go get you a tuxedo…”  
Rubbing his arm from the multiple hits Danica gave him, Nate said “Although I would love to go with you two and spend hours looking at dresses,” he said with sarcasm in his voice, “I don’t think it’s going to happen. I have to help my dad clean out the attic this weekend. Besides, I don’t want to see Danica in her dress until I pick her up, Homecoming night.” At the end of his sentence, he gave Danica a quick wink.  
“Okay, well then, Nadeene,” Danica said, trying her hardest not to blush from what Nate had just said, “what time should me and my mom come on Saturday to pick you up?”  
“Uh, I don’t know. How about nine-ish?”  
“Okay, sounds good.” Just as Danica finished her sentence, the bell rang for them to go to their fourth period class.  
As the three of them started off for their classes, Nate to his Calculus class, Danica and Nadeene to their Chemistry class, Nadeene was hoping that this weekend would help her get over Jackson and the heartache that her put her through. Unfortunately, all she could do was hope.

That Saturday, Nadeene woke up at seven in the morning, ready for Danica to get here and just have their girls-day out. When she got out of bed, she was hopeful that everything would be alright today.  
As she went down-stairs to grab something to eat, she was surprised to see her aunt up at this time, considering she had worked until almost midnight the night before.  
“Good morning, Aunt Amy. What are you doing up so early?” Nadeene asked, as she made her way to the kitchen.  
“Oh, morning Naddie.” Amy answered, as she stretched her arms. “There was a knock at the door about ten minutes ago, and you didn’t hear it. So, I got up to answer it, but no one was there just a letter stuck to the door for you.” she nodded her head to the counter where there was a white envelope, with Nadeene’s name on it. “I put it on the counter, so you could read it when you got up.”  
As Nadeene walked over to the counter, bowl of cereal in hand, she looked at the envelope, wondering who would have just taped it to the door. As she went to sit down at the dining room table, she put her bowl down and opened the letter. As she ate her breakfast, she proceeded to read the letter.  
Dear Nadeene,  
I wanted to apologize for everything that I have done to you. What I did to you was unacceptable and wrong, and I’m sorry. Cheating on you was the worst thing that I have ever done, and it kills me that I did. The relationship you and I had was special, and I shouldn’t have messed with it. If you could find it in your heart to forgive me, I still want our relationship to work. I would also still like to take you to the Homecoming dance. Please give me a call when you read this.  
With love,  
Jackson.  
As Nadeene reread the letter, she laughed at how ridiculous Jackson was being. Take him back? Go to Homecoming with him?  
“Not even in your dreams, you bastard.” Nadeene scoffed, as she threw the letter into the fireplace, which Amy had lit while she was eating her breakfast.  
“Who was it from, dear?” Amy asked, wondering why Nadeene had thrown the letter into the fire.  
“It was from Jackson. He was trying to get me back, but that is not going to happen.” Nadeene said as she watched the paper shrivel up and burn in the fire.  
“Well then, I guess I’ll have to excuse the language then.”  
“Oh, right. I’m sorry about that, it just slipped out.” Nadeene said, as she realized the choice of words she used a moment ago.  
“It’s alright, considering the circumstance.” Amy said, as she got up from the couch and started off for her room. “I’m going to go lay back down for a little while. Have fun on your girls-day out with Danica. Tell her I said hello.”   
With that, Amy disappeared upstairs, leaving Nadeene by herself for another hour-and- a half. As she sat down on the couch, watching the last of the letter burn in the fire, she felt a strange sense of relief. She finally felt as if she didn’t need to worry about Jackson or Alexandra anymore. By burning the letter, she had released herself from all the problems she had been facing for almost a month now. Smiling, she got up, went to her room, and got ready to go to the mall with Danica, as a new, free girl. Nothing is going to stop me now, she thought to herself, nothing.  
As Nadeene grabbed her bag, which had her wallet and a box with her mother’s necklace in it, there was a knock at the door. When she opened it, Nadeene found Danica on the other side of it, ready to go.  
“Morning!” Danica said, with quite a bit of energy for the morning.  
“Hey!” Nadeene said, she gave Danica a hug.  
After exchanging hellos, Nadeene shut the front door behind her and hopped into the car with Danica. She was greeted with a hello from Jen, and they started off for the mall. On the drive there, Nadeene told Danica about the letter she received that morning. By the end of the story, Danica wasn’t sure if she should be laughing or if she should be really pissed off.  
“Seriously! After everything he said to you after everything he put you through, he thinks that just by writing a letter and saying how sorry he is, that you’re just going to take him back!” Danica exclaimed, half laughing, half shouting.  
“I know, that exactly what I was thinking as I read it. After I was done, I just threw the letter into the fire. He wanted me to call him after I read it, yeah, like that’s going to happen.” Nadeene said, rolling her eyes as she finished.  
“Well,” Jen added, since she had heard the whole thing, “that boy sure does have quite a bit of nerve even thinking he could talk to you, considering everything he did.”  
“I know! But it will never happen, that I can promise you.” Danica said, with absolute confidence.  
After a moment, everyone in the car started laughing. Today seemed like it was going to be a wonderful day for Nadeene she could just feel it.  
When they got to the parking lot of the mall, Nadeene and Danica hopped out of the car, before shutting the doors, Jen told the girls that she had to run some errands across town and that she would be back to pick them up around five than evening.  
After saying goodbye, the two girls watched as the car drove off. Once it was gone, both the girls turned to walk into the mall, giggling with excitement. When they entered the building, they found that it was rather crowded that day, mainly because all the stores were having last minute sales for Homecoming dresses. First thing the girls decided to do was go pick up Danica’s dress, which they had to pre-order because it was custom made. Once they got to the store, the cashier went to the storage room, where she found Danica’s dress. When she returned, she led Danica to a changing room, so she could try the dress on. While she was doing that, Nadeene decided to look around the store to see if she found a dress she liked. Although they were all beautiful, she couldn’t find one that she felt went with her mother’s necklace.  
The necklace, which was Nadeene’s most precious possession, was one of the most beautiful things that Nadeene had ever seen. It a simple two-chained necklace, made of small diamonds. In the center of it were three sapphire stones, two smaller ones on the outside and a larger one in the middle of them. The necklace stopped at Nadeene’s collar bone, and helped to accent her elegantly long neck.  
As she was admiring all the dresses, Danica stepped out from behind the curtain of the changing room to show Nadeene her dress.  
Danica’s dress looked beautiful on her. Since it was cut just below the knees, it showed off her long legs, which in her opinion was her best feature. The beading throughout the dress was in the design of cherry blossoms, her favorite flower. When she spun around, the bottom of her dress spread out, almost as if a flower was blooming for the first time, and the fiery red color made her reddish-brown hair really pop.  
“What do you think?” Danica asked, turning this way and that so Nadeene could see the whole dress while still being able to see her expression,  
“Danica,” Nadeene said, with a look of awe on her face, “it’s amazing! It just screams you! You’re drop dead gorgeous! Nate is going to die when he sees you.”  
Danica started to blush when Nadeene said that. “You really think so?” she asked, slightly embarrassed.  
“He would be crazy if he didn’t. Trust me.”  
After Danica changed back into her clothes, she paid for her dress and took the dress back from the cashier. When the two girls finally walked out of the store, they realized that they had spent almost two hours in there. They both looked at each other and laughed. Time just seemed to fly by for the two girls.  
Before, they went to look for a dress for Nadeene, the girls decided to hit the food court for some lunch. When the girls got on the escalator to head upstairs, Danica couldn’t stop talking about how excited she was to finally have her dress.  
“Two weeks of waiting and waiting, and finally I have my perfect dress.” Danica said, as the two girls stepped off the escalator. “I swear, I’ve died and gone to heaven.”  
“Well, can you come back down to earth so we can at least have lunch?” Nadeene said jokingly, as the girls walked over to Panda Express to grab a quick lunch.  
Once the girls found a table, they sat down and opened their boxes to start eating lunch. As they ate, someone came up from behind Danica that neither of the two girls had seen in almost two years.  
“Well, hello Nadeene. Danica.”  
“Trevor!!!!” both the girls screamed in unison.  
Trevor Hanes was a childhood friend of Danica and Nadeene’s, and was Nate’s best bud. That is until sophomore year, when he was selected to be put in the S.E.P. program. S.E.P. was the Students Exchanging Places program at the school, basically a student exchange program. He was selected because of excellent grades and was sent to live in England for a few years. The girls regularly wrote him letters, and Nate was always calling him. Now, he had returned to the U.S. to finish school back at John Franklin High.  
When the girls saw him, they immediately jumped up from their seats and almost tackled him to the ground, getting them a few stares from bystanders. As soon as he had regained his balance, he gave each of the girls their own hug.  
“When did you get back to town?” Danica said, as she released him from a long hug.  
“And why didn’t you call to let us know?” Nadeene said, as she, too, gave him a long hug.  
“I got back on Thursday, and I called Nate but told him not to tell you. I wanted to surprise you two.”  
“He is so dead.” the two girls said in unison, giving each other a nod in agreement.  
“So,” Trevor said, as the three of them sat back down at the table and the girls continued to eat their lunch, “I heard you two were here dress shopping. Found what you were looking for?”  
“Well, I did…” Danica began, as she took a bite of her sweet-and-sour pork.  
“But I still need to find something that will fit with my mom’s necklace.” Nadeene finished, taking a sip from her drink. “You remember it, right? The one with the sapphires?”  
“Of course, I remember!” Trevor said, “I was there when you dad gave it to you for your birthday. I’m sure you’ll find something that will be perfect. You and Jackson are going to look spectacular at Homecoming.” Hearing this made Nadeene and Danica pretty much freeze in the moment. Confused, Trevor asked the question, “What? Was it something I said?”  
“Nate didn’t tell you?” Danica said, giving him a questioning look.  
“No. Tell me what? What happened?”  
As Danica looked at Nadeene, who gave her a nod, saying that it was alright to talk about it.  
“Do you remember Alexandra Wong?” Nadeene asked, still looking down at her food.  
“You mean the girl that was willing to do anything to bring you down. Yeah, I remember.”  
“Well, it turns out the Jackson and her were in a relationship the entire time me and Jackson were dating.”  
“What?!” Trevor exclaimed, both shocked and angered at this news. “You mean the entire almost four years you guys were dating he was cheating on you?!” Both girls shook their heads in unison.  
“I confronted him about it a week ago. He didn’t even try to deny it.”  
“She broke it off with him, so now she’s going to the Homecoming dance with me and Nate.” Danica finished.  
Trevor sat there, stunned at what he just heard. He had known Jackson since middle school. They had been on the same soccer team every year since they met. Trevor never would have guessed that Jackson was even capable of cheating on someone. Especially someone as kind and sweet as Nadeene.  
“Well, I’m sorry Nadeene. If I had known, I never would have mentioned it.” he apologized, looking down at the table as if he was about to be scolded by his mother.  
“It’s alright, Trev.” Nadeene said, patting his hand, “Like you said, you didn’t know, besides I’m over it… and him.”  
“So, what are you doing here anyway?” Danica asked.  
“Well besides trying to surprise you two, which I believe I accomplished, I was here getting a tuxedo for the Homecoming dance.”  
“You’re going to the Homecoming dance?” Nadeene said, a bit surprised. She figured that since he just got back he may just wanted to stay home and relax.  
“Of course, I’m going.” Trevor said, matter-of-factly. “It is my senior year, after all. I want it to be memorable, and Homecoming is part of that.”  
“Well then,” Danica said, standing up and dusting herself off, “since we are all here, how about Nadeene and I help you get your tuxedo.”   
“That sounds like an excellent idea, Danica.” Nadeene said, standing up in agreement.  
“I thought you still had to find a dress Nadeene.” asked a confused Trevor.  
“I have until the mall closes, besides after two years of you being away, we have a lot of catching up to do.” Nadeene said, pulling Trevor to his feet and Danica, with dress in hand, on the other side of him.  
See that there was no way he was going to win this, Trevor agreed and the three of them were off to the tuxedo rental shop to look for the perfect suit for Trevor.


End file.
